The Teahouse
by Vincenth
Summary: The Doctor meets with his future self in a strangely familiar teahouse... One-shot


A/N: A little one-shot featuring the Third Doctor, as he confronts his future in an unexpected way

I don't own Doctor Who, if I did there would be more Kate Orman and Lawrence Miles writing for the TV Series

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'The Teahouse"

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The air was chilled and quiet as the Doctor regained consciousness, the dark seemed all encompassing except for a weak firelight blinking from what looked like a tea house on top of a wide sloping hill. Rubbing his chin with his thumb as he climbed the steep sculpted steps toward the tea house, the Doctor considered the air. It was Japan, from what he could sense of the architecture and wildlife around him, but he wasn't quite sure exactly when.

As he walked towards the teahouse, a sudden thought struck him, something to do with spiders and Metebelis III, a place which he had longed to take Jo. Where was Jo? He wondered, he couldn't see the TARDIS either, so he had no real choice but to continue.

There was something calm about the tea house, from his vantage point he could see a man sitting cross-legged deep in thought on the _tatami_. As he reached the entrance, the man stood up to greet him.

"Hello, You!" he exclaimed

The greeting took the Doctor by surprise, but he had the vague sense that this strange little man was him, from some point in the future. There were no words as he sat to take the tea offered to him. The crumpled linen suit of his future self-seemed out of place in the comparatively traditional setting. His velvet ensemble was hardly fitting either, although. "I thought I'd come to give you a bit of company" said the man in the linen suit

Before answering the Doctor sipped on his tea, a bitter green, not at all like the weak Earl Grey they served back at UNIT HQ, or the Lapsang Souchong that he and Sarah occasionally drank from the TARDIS kitchen. Sarah… Sarah Jane Smith? The thought was gone as quickly as it arrived.

"Why is that, old chap?" inquired the Doctor after some time pondering that thought, inwardly he was worried. Time Lords were not meant to meet themselves if they could help it, his flippant meeting with his past seemed a little irresponsible. He hardly wanted to be exiled again for his actions, so soon after regaining his freedom.

The second Doctor just stared at the first, looking sombre. "You have a long wait ahead and this is such a relaxing place to relax…" he remarked, his previous cheer almost gone from his voice. This alarmed the Doctor, "What do you mean?" he questioned, suddenly alarmed by the stony edge in his future voice. The thought returned, Sarah, the hermit, Mike, the Queen of the Eight Legs, the crystals, radiation.

Pain, the Doctor felt excruciating, stabbing pain. The stone walls of the tea house, and the sloping mountain valley below started to shimmer like a desert mirage and the Doctor's perception shifted. "I just wanted to help!" the elder shouted, "I didn't want you to be alone, not for so very long!"

But too late, the warm firelight vanished with his future self and the walls of the control room of his TARDIS quickly faded into view. He remembered now. The TARDIS was in flight, returning him to Earth, but he couldn't move for the injury he suffered fighting the queen, cold spread through his extremities.

All he could do now was to wait, and he knew he had a long journey ahead to do so.

He only wished his future self could have distracted him from the consequences of his actions long enough to ignore the pain.

He wish he could have played a game of chess with the set in the games room, or written an opera, or toppled an evil empire or fixed Bessie or had tea with Liz and her mother, or said goodbye to Jo or wished her well in her marriage. He wished he could do something! All he could do was sit watch the insubstantial presence hovering at the other side of the console.

The eldritch shape resolved into a man, tall with curly hair and a long scarf. Teeth and curls, as Jo had once told him. The Fourth Doctor, he supposed.

His last thought as he lost consciousness again was how he didn't want to die, or lie crumpled against a wall for Rassilon knows how long.

But he really had no choice, all he could do is wait…

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A/N: Set at the end of Planet of the Spiders as the Doctor's TARDIS returns him to Earth, but takes several years to do so...

The Teahouse in Japan is first featured in "The Room with No Doors" by Kate Orman, in this story the Third Doctor hasn't seen it before until the Seventh projects it into his mind.

Please read and review, I appreciate the criticism.


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